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Hair Facts . . . Did you Know?
Annie Turnbo Malone (August 9, 1869—May 10, 1957) was an African-American businesswoman, inventor and philanthropist who, in the first three decades of the 20th century, built a large and prominent commercial and educational enterprise centered around cosmetics for African-American women and, subsequently, training and poise for both genders.
At the beginning of the 1900s, Annie Malone had pioneered and revolutionized hair care methods for all African Americans. She created a variety of hair care treatments, including the first patented hot comb, which preceded the one popularized by an early employee of hers, Madam C.J. Walker. As early as 1902, she and her assistants were going door-to-door selling her own unique brand of hair care products, "Poro", a West African name, which means physical and spiritual growth. By 1917, Annie Malone had become so successful that she founded and opened Poro College in St. Louis, the first educational institution in America dedicated to the study and teaching of black cosmetology. The school employed nearly two hundred people and ran a strict curriculum centered around instruction on the correct manner of walking, talking and style of dress designed to maintain a solid public persona
By the 1920s, Annie Malone had become a multi-millionaire and continued to share her great wealth with those less fortunate than herself. As a way of fulfilling her part in society, she donated her money to, and served as president of, the St. Louis Colored Orphans Home. The institution was later revamped and renamed in order to pay homage to its most generous patron, and became the Annie Malone Children and Family Service Center.
Madam C.J. Walker
Madam C.J. Walker or Madame Charles Joseph Walker (December 23, 1867–May 25, 1919) was an African American philanthropist and tycoon who made her fortune developing and marketing a successful line of beauty and hair products for black women. Born Sarah Breedlove in Delta, Louisiana, the first member of her family born free.
She became interested in a hair tonic while trying to treat a scalp ailment that left her temporarily bald. In 1905, Sarah moved to Denver, Colorado, working as a hair tonic sales agent for Annie Malone, another black woman entrepreneur. She married her third husband, Charles Joseph Walker, a St. Louis newspaperman, changed her name to "Madam" C.J. Walker, and founded the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company to sell hair care products and cosmetics.
In 1910, she moved her growing manufacturing operation to a new industrial complex in Indianapolis and by 1917, it was the largest business in the United States owned by an African American.
Madam C. J. Walker said of herself:
"I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations...I have built my own factory on my own ground."
"There is no royal, flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it for if I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard."
Blacked Out Through Whitewash
By SUZAR
Excerpt from Chapter 1 (Page 10-11)
Hair is really Antennae which can receive and transmit energy!
Hair is the receiver and transmitter of divine emanation it makes you receptive to spiritual forces. Saints and sages instinctively let their hair grow. Rastafarians regard dredlocks as a quality of Black people: they regard dredlocks as "high-tension wires" which transmits divine energy and inspiration from Jah (God) the creator, to Rasta, the mirror. Within our body which is the temple of God, our head, the "holy of holies," is the highest point, while our hair, its natural crown, is like the spire of a church, our vertical connection with God. Representing our strength, it forms an antenna through which the SPIRitual force may descend. SPIRitual force, rather than "descend," will SPIRal through SPIRaling hair. Since Nature does nothing without a reason, what is the purpose and effect of spiral-hair?
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